Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Alexander, Milton Jan 2, 1846
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Judy Banja http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00004.html#0000757 
December 12, 2024, 6:27 am 

Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 
1892. Author: Samuel T. Wiley

MILTON ALEXANDER,
a prominent lawyer of Altoona, and ex-district attorney of Blair county, is a
son of Robert and Mary (Rodkey) Alexander, and was born in the borough of
Williamsburg, in Woodbury township, Blair county, Pennsylvania, January 2,
1846.  His paternal grandfather was a native of the north of Ireland, and
left his island home to settle in Hart's Log valley, Huntingdon county, where
he participated in the Indian troubles of that county during the American
revolution.  He married, reared a family, and died in 1813, aged sixty-four
years.  One of his sons was Robert Alexander, the father of the subject of
this sketch, and who was born June 5, 1805, near Alexandria, in Hart's Log
valley, Huntingdon county.  He removed to Williamsburg in 1827.  He was of
Scotch-Irish descent, and was for many years engaged in the general
mercantile business at Williamsburg, which he left in 1874 to remove to
Altoona, where he died at his home on Union avenue, August 13, 1884, when in
the seventy-ninth year of his age.  He was a straightforward man, who
despised shams and subterfuges, and for many years had been an active and
consistent member of the Presbyterian church.  He was also a member of the
Sons of Temperance, and is entitled to the honor of being the founder,
besides acting as president for many years, of the society of the Silver
Grays, which organization admits no one to membership who has not attained to
sixty-five years of age.  He was a republican in politics, and had served
during the late civil war as an assistant revenue assessor.  After coming to
Altoona, he retired from active business and enjoyed the comforts of his home
and the conversation of his many friends, yet he never neglected church work
or lost interest in political affairs while he lived.  He celebrated his
golden wedding August 4, 1870, and when he passed away, left the record of a
life well spent, which, while not eventful, yet was useful and worthy of
imitation.  On August 4, 1829, he married Mary Rodkey, who was born on the
same day of the same month and in the same year as her husband, and died June
27, 1882, aged seventy-seven years.  She was reared in the Presbyterian faith,
and had been a consistent member of different churches of that religious
denomination from youth.
    Milton Alexander passed his boyhood days at Williamsburg until he was
sixteen years of age.  After fitting for college, in preparatory schools, he
entered Jefferson college, at Canonsburg, in Washington county, from which he
was graduated in the class of 1866, under the united colleges of Washington
and Jefferson.  He then read law with David Lawson, of Clarion, Pennsylvania,
and entered the celebrated Albany law school, from which he was graduated in
the winter of 1869.  He was admitted to the Blair county bar on June 26,
1869, practiced at Altoona until 1871, when he was elected district attorney
of Blair county and served a term of three years.  At the expiration of his
term he returned to the practice of his profession, and two years later he
formed a partnership with his former law student, H. H. Herr, who had been
admitted to the bar in 1873, under the firm name of Alexander & Herr, which
partnership lasted until the death of Mr. Herr, in October, 1889.  Since that
time Mr. Alexander has had no partner, and has continued to practice in the
courts of Blair and adjoining counties.
    On September 10, 1872, Mr. Alexander united in marriage with Katie F.
Martin, daughter of B. B. Martin, of Lancaster city, Pennsylvania.  They have
two children, a son and a daughter: Ralph V. and Lilian M.
    Milton Alexander has been interested in other matters that those which
pertain to his profession.  In the municipal affairs and the city government
of Altoona he has taken an active part, and served as city and county
solicitor from 1874 to 1876.  He has been identified with the Altoona
building associations since their organization, and has drafted every form
which these organizations have found necessary to use, from their inception
down to the present time.  He is a staunch republican, has always worked for
the success of his party, and in religious sentiment inclines to the faith of
the Presbyterian church, of which he is a regular attendant and contributor. 
He is a member of Logan Lodge, No. 490, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he
was the first entered apprentice.  He is also a member of the Order of Sons of
America, and has served as State treasurer and State president of that
organization for the State of Pennsylvania.  As a lawyer he studies his cases
closely, and then tries them for all there is in them.  Genial and pleasant as
a man, active and useful as a citizen, and careful and safe as a counsellor,
Milton Alexander has become well known and prominent in Altoona and Blair county.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Eileen

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